BUSINESS WORLD AWHIRL AGAIN AS THE BIG DEALS COME BACK

By LESLIE WAYNE

Published: March 19, 1988

The surprising revival of corporate takeovers since the first of the year became a bidding frenzy this week as one major American corporation after another found itself the object of competing suitors.

The Whirlpool Corporation slapped a new offer on the table for the Roper Corporation after the General Electric Company stepped in. The Black & Decker Corporation yesterday came back with an alternative offer to stockholders of American Standard Inc. after an investment partnership entered that contest. Stunning Deal for Firestone

And, in a stunning riposte, on Thursday night, Bridgestone Tire of Japan shut out an Italian rival by offering $2.6 billion to acquire the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, one of America's best-known corporations. Bridgestone clinched the deal by exceeding its rival's bid by a breathtaking 38 percent.

There is also a battle for Federated Department Stores, whose holdings include Bloomingdale's and Abraham & Straus. A Federal judge yesterday dealt a serious blow to the takeover effort of the Campeau Corporation, apparently giving an edge to R. H. Macy & Company's bid for Federated.

Corporate mergers and takeover contests are back in a big way, after faltering in the wake of the stock market collapse last Oct. 19. Since January, bids valued at $72.6 billion have been announced, according to statistics of the M&A DataBase. That is nearly twice the amount recorded in the comparable 1987 period.

''There are so many transactions that it's hard to keep track these days,'' said Ronald Freeman, a managing director at Salomon Brothers Inc. ''They are becoming more and more a part of normal corporate life. These aren't junk bond junkies or corporate raiders that are doing this. The majority of these deals are being done by absolutely solid corporations.''

Some companies appear to be going after others because they are afraid of being acquired themselves or because they sense a need to move quickly as the Reagan Administration, with its lenient antitrust policy, enters its final months. That political consideration might have been part of the reason that West Point-Pepperell Inc., for instance, went after another textile giant, J. P. Stevens & Company. But Pepperell was outbid last week by Odyssey Partners, a Wall Street investment partnership.

Then there is the move by General Electric, which historically steered clear of hostile takeover deals, but decided to pursue Roper, even though Roper had accepted a Whirlpool offer. A suit filed yesterday by Whirlpool contended that G.E. had improperly intruded into its agreement with Roper. For some people the situation brought to mind similar charges made by the Pennzoil Company in its fierce fight with Texaco Inc. over the Getty Oil Company.

The takeover game has brought foreign bidders here, as in Bridgestone's move on Firestone. For foreign companies eager to get a presence in the United States, the dollar's decline in recent years has created bargains in American companies. But the taste for giant acquisitions, involving $1 billion or more, has spread beyond the United States. Just yesterday, Carlo de Benedetti, the Italian financier, agreed to sell his Buitoni pasta operations to Nestle S.A. of Switzerland for $1.27 billion.

As for the forseeable future, most analysts believe that the factors behind the merger boom will remain in place. In their view any choppiness in the stock market will make acquisitions even cheaper, there are enough Reagan-appointed judges in the Federal judiciary to maintain a favorable antitrust climate, and corporations will continue to see acquisitions as the most-feasible way to attain the size they need to compete on a global scale.

The current takeover frenzy has fueled by the revival of the market for high-yield junk bonds. For example, the $2.5 billion, all-cash, takeover offer for American Standard from a small Manhattan investment house, Kelso & Company, is dependent on the issuance of junk bonds. That financing has not scared off the original suitor, Black & Decker, which increased its tender offer yesterday. Plentiful Corporate Cash

Another important factor is the abundance of cash in the hands of corporations and financiers. Banks, hurt by their loans to the third world, are instead pouring money into takeover financing. Pension funds and others are putting billions of dollars into leveraged buyout funds that promise high returns by taking small equity positions and relying on borrowed money to finance the rest of a deal. And many corporations have piles of cash, ready for investing, after years of shedding assets as part of a general restructuring trend.

Much, too, can be made of the effects of the market crash of last October. ''Everybody is a psychological animal,'' said Jeffrey L. Berenson, director of mergers at Merrill Lynch & Company. ''Once people began to recover from the trauma of the loss, they started looking at the prices, which are pretty cheap by historical standards.''

Alfred Rappaport, chairman of the Alcar Group, a counseling firm, contends that ''lots of companies have price tags of 75 cents on the dollar.''